Old versions

Free Image OCR is a simple application which recognizes the text within an image or a PDF file for performing further edits.
This program can be used both for extracting the text within a scanned document, and for converting PDFs into text files. The interface is quite common, and the menu resembles the usual text editors. I appreciated the fact that the program offers the opportunity to view simultaneously the original image and the result obtained after extracting the text. Thus, these two can be compared more easily. Another thing to consider, is that the application is free. To edit the text obtained, it can be exported to a Microsoft Word file or other text editor. Besides the basic function, namely the recognition of text, this tool allows you to set or remove PDF passwords. You can also apply a digital signature to your file. For this option, among other things, you need to fill in the fields ’PFX file name’ and ‘PFX password’. Since many users are not familiar with what a PFX file is, some additional information would have been appropriate which, however, are missing from the program’s Help.

It is a free program, where you are limited to using it successfully with documents containing printed text, a background as simple as possible and high visual quality. For those containing handwritten fonts or special tables you will not get the best results. Neither Italics are fully recognized. I want to emphasize that this is a problem common to most free OCR applications.